As cultural, social, political, and historical objects, guns are rich with complex and contested significance. What guns mean, why they matter, and what policies should be undertaken to regulate guns remain issues of vigorous scholarly and public debate. Gun Studies offers fresh research and original perspectives on the contentious issue of firearms in public life. Comprising global, interdisciplinary contributions, this insightful volume examines difficult and timely questions through the lens of: Social practice Marketing and commerce Critical theory Political conflict Public policy Criminology Questions explored include the evolution of American gun culture from recreation to self-protection; the changing dynamics of the pro-gun and pro-regulation movements; the deeply personal role of guns as sources of both injury and security; and the relationship between gun-wielding individuals, the state, and social order in the United States and abroad. In addition to introducing new research, Gun Studies presents reflections by senior scholars on what has been learned over the decades and how gun-related research has influenced public policy and everyday conversations. Offering provocative and often intimate perspectives on how guns influence individuals, social structures, and the state in both dramatic and nuanced ways, Gun Studies will appeal to students and researchers interested in fields such as sociology, political science, legal history, criminology, criminal justice, social policy, armaments industries, and violent crime. It will also appeal to policy makers and all others interested in and concerned about the use of guns.

As cultural, social, political, and historical objects, guns are rich with complex and contested significance. What guns mean, why they matter, and what policies should be undertaken to regulate guns remain issues of vigorous scholarly and public debate. Gun Studies offers fresh research and original perspectives on the contentious issue of firearms in public life. Comprising global, interdisciplinary contributions, this insightful volume examines difficult and timely questions through the lens of: Social practice Marketing and commerce Critical theory Political conflict Public policy Criminology Questions explored include the evolution of American gun culture from recreation to self-protection; the changing dynamics of the pro-gun and pro-regulation movements; the deeply personal role of guns as sources of both injury and security; and the relationship between gun-wielding individuals, the state, and social order in the United States and abroad. In addition to introducing new research, Gun Studies presents reflections by senior scholars on what has been learned over the decades and how gun-related research has influenced public policy and everyday conversations. Offering provocative and often intimate perspectives on how guns influence individuals, social structures, and the state in both dramatic and nuanced ways, Gun Studies will appeal to students and researchers interested in fields such as sociology, political science, legal history, criminology, criminal justice, social policy, armaments industries, and violent crime. It will also appeal to policy makers and all others interested in and concerned about the use of guns.

"Having been involved in the gun safety movement since tragedy struck my family in 1993, I understand full well the history of the gun-control movement and the difficulties it has experienced, particularly in light of today's political environment in Washington. Disarmed is an excellent study of the efforts put forth by so many to reduce gun violence."--U.S. Representative Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), founder of the Carolyn McCarthy Center on Gun Violence and Harm Reduction

"Kristin Goss has done important work here that fundamentally tells the history of the gun debate over the past twenty-five years and of the efforts of the opposing sides to outmaneuver each other. She deserves praise for research that is remarkable both in quality and in volume, and for presenting a massive body of facts in an extremely readable fashion."--Sarah Brady, Honorary Chair, Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence

"This outstanding book combines theoretical import with a highly topical policy issue in a form that is exceptionally readable, engaging, thoughtful, mature, and insightful. Superb and inventive data analysis brings the book's theoretical formulations to life as they are applied to one of the most intractable, controversial, and interesting policy issues of the last century, gun control. No one has examined the issue from this end of the lens--the pro-control side--with such analytical depth and rigor until now."--Robert J. Spitzer, author of "The Politics of Gun Control"

"This book represents a fantastic project, well argued and well-written and much needed. Focusing on a critical policy topic, Kristin Goss posits a strong new idea for studying social movements--why they don't emerge ormaybe why they undermobilize. The smooth, almost seamless movement between social and political theory and case material is, quite frankly, the strongest I have ever seen."--Bryan Jones, author of" Politics and the Architecture of Choice," coauthor of "Agendas and Instability in American Politics"